Case study: Migrating 1,000 VMs

from VMware to RHEV

Tomas Von Veschler CoxSenior Solution Architect, Red HatJune 2013

Case headlines

● Increase virtualization capacity 4X● Saving $1M in software licenses● Using 60 less hypervisors

● In 4 months with just 4 internal resources

Canarias Goverment Telco Platform

● Manages internal IT for all public statements in Canarias

● 150 employees in IT

● 1600 physical servers across two datacenters

● Attending 22K incidents/month from 57K public employees

● ISO 9001:2008, ITIL

Microsoft Windows 7 (32/64 bit)Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise / Standard Edition (32/64 bits)Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (32/64 bits)Microsoft Windows XP Professional (32 bits)Microsoft Windows Vista (32bits)Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 y 5 (32/64 bits)Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (64 bits)Otros Linux (Ubuntu)

Customer workloads

+40DIFFERENT SW TECHNOLOGIES WEB SERVERS APPLICATION SERVERS REMOTE APPLI. SERVERS PROXY'S CORPORATE ANTIVIRUS DIRECTORY SERVICES EMAIL MOBILITY SOLUTIONS DASHBOARD TELEPHONY SERVICES VOIP SERVICES VIDEOCONF SERVICES MONITORING SERVICES E- ADMINISTRATION HR APPLICATIONS FILE SERVERS PRINT SERVERS DATABASES INCIDENT MANAGEMENT SW SALARY & PAYROLL SW E-TRAINING

17 OS VERSIONS

20 TB OF DATAFC STORAGE

Background

2007

2011

Started adopting virtualization● Looking after consolidation & continuity● General purpose servers as hypervisors:

Blades with 2 CPUs and 16Gb RAM● 40 hosts

Virtualization infrastructure now requires:● 160 hosts – 1,000 VMs● 4X organic grow

Additionally:VMware 3.5 EOL = no new hardware needs new licenses

How to evolve: time to make decisions

2012 Predicted capacity increase: 2XPredicted budget needs: $1.3M

Strategic decisions:

● Call Red Hat in

● Vertical hardware grow:

● Increase VM density

● Decrease number of servers

● Ensure virtualization costs predictability

● Migrate to RHEV

Project timings & resources

21

4

45

5

ARCHITECTURE &

IMPLEMENTATION

VM MIGRATION

KNOWLEDGE

TRANSFER &

TRAININGYEARLY

UPGRADES &

HEALTHCHECK

QWERTY CONSULTANT

PMOSYSTEMS DEPT.OPERATIONS DEPT.

SENIOR SOLUTION ARCHITECTSENIOR CONSULTANTSUPPORT RELASHIONSHIP MANAGER

Benefits I: Simplified infrastructure

● 6 management consoles -> 2 prod, 1 test

● Clusters split by production phase and service type

● HW adapted for higher density:● 2 x 6 core CPUs servers● 16Gb RAM = 7 VMs / server● 96Gb RAM = 30 VMs / server● SPECVirt 2 CPUs record:

512Gb RAM = 150 VMs / server

INICIAL FINAL0

50

100

150

200

Nº HOST MEMORIA

VMwarevSphere

RHEV

ESXi RHEL virt-v2v ImportStorage

ProductionStorage

● Stop VM ● Launch V2V tool to:- On-the-fly copy VM- Convert VM disks - Install virtio drivers- Network mappings

1 2 3● Import VM from RHEV-M web interface or API● Start VM

Benefits II: Easy migration process

Benefits II: Easy migration process (cont.)

● Procedural process mostly automated

● 95% of the migration done by level 2 operators

● Virtual to virtual:● Migration rate: 36 VMs per day● 720 VMs migrated in 45 days

● Physical to virtual:● Migration rate: as they identify candidates● 150 physical servers migrated in a couple of months

Bonus

● Less servers = less power costs:● 2 CPU blade has a power of around 350 watts● Power costs ~$0.10 KwH● Cooling costs are similar to power costs● So: power + cooling of a single blade costs ~$600/year● $600 x 210 servers x 3 years = -$300K spent in power

Benefits III: Economic sustainability

● Cost of doing nothing, just acquire new virt version:● VMware licenses + support for 160 servers ~= $1.3M

● Cost of a well planned evolution:● RHEV subscriptions for 100 servers: $280K● Red Hat + Partner services: $100K

1,000,000 €

300,000 €

- $1.000.000- $1.000.000

* 3 year prices

Benefits IV: Reallocate virt budget to cloud apps

● Cloud guest OS: RHEL● 20 units of RHEL unlimited guests = 600 VMs● 30 VMs/server = $60 per RHEL instance

● Your cloud application: JBoss● Lightweight application server● Easy to automate● Super fast start up times● HA at application level

Future: Reallocate virt budget to cloud mgmt

● Add cloud management functionality: CloudForms● Multi-hypervisor management

● Executive dashboards

● Chargeback

● Capacity planning

● End-to-end IT processes automation

● Service catalogs & self-service portal

● Add a PaaS: Openshift● Developer agility

● Increased density

● Private and public options * Source: IDC IT WW Spending

Y2013

Customer conclusions

● Economic sustainability

● Technological sustainability

● Easy migration process

● Without loosing any significant functionality

Final advices

● Plan for increased VM density on every HW/SW refresh

● Enable cloud features to get the maximum value out of the virtualization

● Prepare apps to the new cloud paradigm = run them anywhere

● Work in collaboration with your trusted vendor

THANKS!

tvvcox@redhat.com

QUESTIONS ?QUESTIONS ?

Related resources

● Download public case in PDF:● http://red.ht/109bi89

● Reference Architecture:● Migrating from VMware ESXi 5 to RHEV 3

http://red.ht/13mKgXC ● RHEV tech user forums:

● https://access.redhat.com -> Groups -> RHEV

● Download RHEV Trial with 60 days support:● http://www.redhat.com/promo/rhev3/

06/13 Sessions

Time Title

10:40 AM – 11:40 AM KVM Hypervisor Roadmap & Technology Update

2:30 PM - 3:30 PM Migrating 1,000 VMs from VMware to Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization: A Case Study – Room 313

3:40 PM - 4:40 PM War Stories from the Cloud: Lessons from US Defense Agencies - Room 309

4:50 PM - 5:50 PM Red Hat Virtualization Deep Dive - Room 311

4:50 PM - 5:50 PM Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Performance - Room 304

4:50 PM - 5:50 PM Real world perspectives: Gaining Competitive Advantages with Red Hat Solutions

All day long: RHEV User Experience booth – 2nd floor near GSS area

06/14 Sessions

Time Title

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Network Virtualization & Software-defined Networking

9:45 AM - 10:45 PM Hypervisor Technology Comparison & Migration